I finished my stem cell transplant in August of 2006.  As I mentioned in my last article, once engrafting of the stem cells takes place, most of the nasty symptoms from the transplant resolve fairly quickly. The lingering symptom was fatigue.

On the bright side, I was home, the worst of the treatment was over, and I was going to make the best of it.

Everyone said, “Don’t fight the fatigue, listen to your body.”  This is true.  If you need to nap, nap. Your body has been through hell and …

I don’t often write what could be called “feel good stories.”

But life is about balance. I get so caught-up in trying to help multiple myeloma patients and caregivers get a handle on their “new normal” lives, I forget how important it is for all of us to just try to stay positive—and inspiration can definitely help with that.

Different things inspire different people. For me, it’s the small, seemingly insignificant everyday things that move me the most. These are things that help me carefully roll out of bed each morning, even …

Poetry touches the personal and the universal. Other people’s experiences remind me of my own, and the written word offers personal nourishment that often speaks to the truth of the multiple myeloma experience.

Awaiting the blossoms and sun of springtime, I came upon a small consoling poem by the Buddhist sage, Huang Po:

“Without undergoing a winter that bites into your bones, how can the plum blossoms regale you with their piercing fragrance?”

And so it is for people living with myeloma.

The Pulitzer Prize was recently awarded to Siddhartha Mukherjee for …

My wife, Pattie, is an excellent caregiver.  A three-time cancer survivor herself, Pattie knows what it feels like to battle cancer.  That experience helps her understand what I am going through.

We were recently forced to face the reality of my first relapse.  After four years of Revlimid helping keep my multiple myeloma at bay, we learned two months ago that the myeloma is back and active.

Even if I’m not feeling well—or Pattie is tired after work—we always try to get out for an evening walk with our rescued dog, Finnegan. …

Back in 1988, Phyllis Susser, one of the founders and the executive director of Herbert G. Birch Community Services (now Birch Family Services), was establishing a home in Brooklyn for abandoned AIDS babies.

Some of us were helping her deal with the overwhelming negativity and ferocious opposition from the neighbors and the surrounding community.

It was at this Brooklyn residence for babies, whose only home to that point had been a hospital, that I met Geraldine Ferraro.

Back in the late 1980s, you have to understand that the fear of and misunderstanding …

By the time I learned I had multiple myeloma, I was really sick.  Bedridden from a fractured vertebra and high on narcotics, everything seemed surreal—like I was in a fog.

Sure, I searched around a bit online for information.  But there weren’t as many good sources of info four years ago as there are now.

But even with newer sources of information, there are a number of barriers that slow patients from getting up-to-speed and learning as much as they can about multiple myeloma as soon as they can.

This is unfortunate.  …

After three months of induction chemotherapy with vincristine, doxorubicin (Adriamycin), and dexamethasone (Decadron), I was ready for my stem cell transplant.

From the time I was diagnosed, all I kept hearing about was the stem cell transplant.  It seemed like the holy grail of treatment, and even as a physician I was somewhat mystified by the process.

Since I was fairly young (47) and otherwise in good health, there was no question that I was going to get a stem cell transplant.

The stem cell transplant used in the …